Economy

The same day, Frank Rapoport, a lawyer representing several billion-dollar construction and real estate contractors, jumped in to suggest that many of those public works projects shouldn’t be public at all. Instead, cash-strapped governments should turn to “public private partnerships,” known as “P3s.” That means roads, bridges and tunnels being rebuilt by private companies, which, for instance, could install tolls and keep the profits.

During tough times, we often forget to take care of our basic needs such as getting the sleep and nutrition we need to optimally function. Unfortunately, this makes things worse, with less energy to function and greater emotional stress. Prioritize your health as you are coping with your loss to help you and those around you get through this difficult time.

When I called Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office to ask why so much of the relief effort had been left to volunteers, I got immense pushback. Cas Holloway, one of Bloomberg’s deputy mayors, told me that the city had handed out two million meals. The city was coordinating with the Salvation Army, he said, and was a big presence in the Rockaways. It had set up five distribution centers there. It was paying food trucks to give out free food.

After its encampment in Zuccotti Park, which changed the public discourse about economic inequality and introduced the nation to the trope of the 1 percent, the Occupy movement has wandered in a desert of more intellectual, less visible projects, like farming, fighting debt and theorizing on banking. While several nouns have been occupied — from summer camp to health care — it is only with Hurricane Sandy that the times have conspired to deliver an event that fully calls upon the movement’s talents and caters to its strengths.

A major contributing factor to gold’s price is that the vast majority of the stock of physical gold is held in very strong hands. It is largely held privately by very wealthy families or by governments and their central banks. This gold lies very still, some of it not changing owners or locations for decades, if not centuries.

Some days, I feel like I'm drowning in stuff. Purging your junk is the new favourite weekend activity. You invite a girlfriend over, whose role is to be your conscience. The two of you go through your closets and get rid of stuff. Your friend's job is to make sure you don't pull stuff out of the garbage bags. My friend took all the garbage bags with her when she left to be sure I didn't sneak out some of my treasures. I felt fantastic afterwards, a little lighter. Like a bit of a burden was lifted off my shoulders.

“EV owners report an average monthly increase in their utility bill of just $18 to recharge their vehicle’s battery — which is significantly less than the $147 that they would typically pay for gasoline during the same period of time,” the study said.

Winter smogs are not uncommon in Delhi, but this year has been rather extreme, sending air pollution levels way above permissible limits. The government has blamed farmers who burn straw in neighbouring states.

The much-smaller Island Timberlands purchase is not expected to attract the same scrutiny as the Petronas and CNOOC deals because C.I.C. is expected to be taking only a 12.5-per-cent stake in the company, rather than buying it outright. C.I.C. also takes a long-term, passive approach to investments, said Gilbert Chan, president of NAI Interactive Ltd., which connects North American companies with Chinese investors.

Or we could see this as a matter of the looming extinction of much of what sustains life forms such as ourselves. There’s much to suggest that unless we do something fast, air quality will continue to deteriorate, temperatures to rise, and oceans to become too acidic to support their present vibrant diversity.

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1 Comment

As ever, we in resource rich Canada cannot seem to move beyond our "hewers of wood and drawers of water" mindset. My frequent walks along the sea shore have me seeing shipload after shipload laden with our raw logs (and many other raw materials) passing by on the way to China, so they can make crap furniture and send it back to us to buy in "Chinamart". Meanwhile, up Island, we have numerous wood and pulp mills being shuttered due to "inefficiencies", impacting countless communities. There was never any investment in value added industries. Why bother? It was easier and more profitable to just do the rape and pillage thing and sell the easy to get at raw materials. They are trying to do the same thing in Alberta with the tar sands - why bother building refineries when we can just ship the raw bitument to China?

All of this has been enabled by the era of cheap oil. One day, soon I hope, I won't see any more ships of raw logs going by when on my walks, and we in this great country of ours will finally do what we should have been doing all along, creating good and sustainable value added industries right here.